Business Tourism Worth 2bn To Scots Economy

Business tourism is worth almost £2 billion to Scotland’s economy, a new report has revealed.

Research has been carried out examining for the first time the value the sector has for the UK.

The industry, which includes conferences, conventions, trade shows and exhibitions, generated total revenues of more than £20.6bn across Britain in 2011 and £1.919bn in Scotland, according to the study.

Only three regions of England — Greater London, the South East and the West Midlands — had a higher gross value added figure than Scotland.

More than 1.3 million meetings took place across the UK in 2011, of which 86,524 were held north of the border

The report has been produced by the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality at Leeds Metropolitan University.

It said that the work was a “milestone in the history of the UK meeting industry”, calculating for the first time the sector’s value to the UK economy”.

Neil Brownlee, head of VisitScotland’s business tourism unit, said: “This long-awaited report is the UK equivalent of similar research commissioned by the US meetings industry two years ago.

“It confirms that the meetings industry, or business tourism as we call it here, is an absolutely key sector supporting not only conference centres and hotels, but thousands of other operators not normally associated with tourism.

“It also reminds us that, while tourism is one of the Scottish Government’s key target sectors, business tourism uniquely pulls from all the other sectors such as life sciences, energy and food and drink.

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